Natasha Lomas
Writer
The Latest from Natasha Lomas
Facebook starts its facial recognition push to Europeans
Facebook users in Europe are reporting that the company has started giving them the option to turn on its controversial facial recognition technology. Jimmy Nsubuga, a journalist at Metro, is among s
Eventbrite acquires Spanish ticketing platform Ticketea
Eventbrite has been shopping again in Europe — announcing today that it’s picked up Spanish ticketing firm, Ticketea. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed but we’re asking arou
Uber denies its CTO met with Cambridge Analytica
Uber has denied that its sitting CTO, Thuan Pham, met with Cambridge Analytica — the controversial political consultancy at the center of a Facebook user data misuse scandal. But it has not been
Facebook moves to shrink its legal liabilities under GDPR
Facebook has another change in the works to respond to the European Union’s beefed up data protection framework — and this one looks intended to shrink its legal liabilities under GDPR, an
Data experts on Facebook’s GDPR changes: Expect lawsuits
Make no mistake: Fresh battle lines are being drawn in the clash between data-mining tech giants and Internet users over people’s right to control their personal information and protect their p
Facebook, Microsoft and others sign anti-cyberattack pledge
Microsoft, Facebook and Cloudflare are among a group of technology firms that have signed a joint pledge committing publicly not to assist offensive government cyberattacks. The pledge also commits th
Telegram plays down Russian block — claiming no ‘significant’ impact yet
A court in Russia ordered a block of messaging app Telegram this week but founder Pavel Durov has shrugged off the impact of the ban 24 hours in — claiming the app hasn’t seen “a sig
Cambridge Analytica’s ex-CEO backs out of giving evidence to UK parliament
Alexander Nix, the former CEO of the political consultancy firm at the center of a storm about mishandled Facebook users data, has backed out of re-appearing in front of the UK parliament for a second
CA also used ‘sex compass’ and other quiz apps for sucking Facebook data, says former employee
Brittney Kaiser, a former employee for Cambridge Analytica — who left the company in January and is today giving evidence in front of a UK parliament committee that’s investigating online
France to move ministers off Telegram, WhatsApp over security fears
The French government has said it intends to move to using its own encrypted messaging service this summer, over concerns of the risks that foreign entities could spy on officials using popular encryp
UK report urges action to combat AI bias
The need for diverse development teams and truly representational data-sets to avoid biases being baked into AI algorithms is one of the core recommendations in a lengthy Lords committee report lookin
How to save your privacy from the Internet’s clutches
Another week, another massive privacy scandal. When it’s not Facebook admitting it allowed data on as many as 87 million users to be sucked out by a developer on its platform who sold it to a poli
Telegram hit with block in Russia over encryption
A Russian court has ordered a block on access to the Telegram messaging app — with the block coming into force immediately, according to the BBC. The messaging platform has been under pressure t
Privacy Shield now facing questions via legal challenge to Facebook data flows
The Irish High Court has referred for a second time a legal challenge to Facebook’s EU-US data transfers to Europe’s top court, seeking a preliminary ruling on a series of fundamental ques
Dutch uni spinout gets $1.2M for its zero ink printing tech
Tocano, a spinout from Delft Technology University in the Netherlands which is working on an inkless printing technology, has closed a €1 million angel round to fund the next stage of its tech dev
Cambridge University hits back at Zuckerberg’s shade
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s testimony to the House yesterday was a mostly bland performance, punctuated by frequent claims not to know or remember certain fundamental aspects of his own busi
Zuckerberg won’t give a straight answer on data downloads
What does Facebook know about you? Clearly a whole lot more than it’s comfortable letting on. Today, during testimony in front of the House Energy & Commerce committee, CEO Mark Zuckerberg w
Zuckerberg makes case for privacy regs with teeth — by failing to remember non-existent FTC fine
Chalk up a sharp political point in support for privacy legislation with actual teeth: In today’s testimony in front of the House Energy & Commerce committee, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg
TravelPerk grabs $21M to make booking business trips suck less
TravelPerk, a Barcelona-based SaaS startup that’s built an end-to-end business travel platform, has closed a $21 million Series B round, led by Berlin-based Target Global and London’s Felix
Zuckerberg urges privacy carve outs to compete with China
Facebook’s founder said last month that the company is open to being regulated. But today he got asked by the US senate what sort of legislative changes he would (and wouldn’t) like to see